The Grocery Expansion Game w/ Raina Roberts [Partners Coffee]

With quality coffee more widely available than ever, roasters can no longer rely solely on their beans’ excellence to drive growth. As Raina Roberts, Business Development Director at Partners Coffee in Brooklyn, NY, puts it, “When everyone’s special, no one’s special.”Raina oversees 250+ wholesale accounts and has guided Partners’ expansion beyond the Northeast. She’s seen how grocery buyers now demand more, charge hidden fees, and issue dispute codes that can wreck margins if you’re not prepared.In this Coffee Think Tank episode, we unpack what it really takes to break into grocery, the costs you can’t overlook, how to support rollouts across regions, and how to win wholesale accounts when you’re not local. If you handle B2B growth or expansion at a roaster, this one’s for you.WHAT YOU’LL LEARNHow Partners Coffee grew from a Northeast base into Midwest grocery chainsThe real economics and logistics behind specialty coffee in grocery storesWhy a grocery partnership can take a year before products hit shelvesHow to calculate true COGS for grocery to stay profitableHidden fees and dispute deductions that erode marginsBalancing Brooklyn identity with broad-market appealWinning wholesale clients when you aren’t the local roasterDeveloping travel-friendly specialty SKUs like cold-brew pouches and instant coffeeUsing DTC data to prove market potential in new regionsCHAPTERS00:00 The changing landscape of coffee biz-dev03:02 Raina’s journey in coffee06:08 What a Business Development Director really does08:51 Distribution and logistics landmines11:57 First big Midwest win: Fresh Thyme Market15:07 Marketing a new region from afar18:02 How grocery sales actually happen21:06 Data management and transparency headaches24:10 Tariffs and price shocks28:07 Pricing strategy under grocery pressure31:12 Understanding and fighting disputes35:43 Region-specific marketing tactics39:05 Serving wholesale customers that aren’t local45:11 Protecting brand integrity while scaling51:07 Product innovation — cold brew, instant, and more55:48 Trends shaping coffee’s next five yearsWHERE TO FIND RAINA ROBERTSLinkedInPartners Coffee websiteInstagram @partnerscoffeeMENTIONED IN THE EPISODEFresh Thyme MarketWhole Foods MarketWorld MarketRockaway Cold Brew PouchesPartners Instant CoffeeThe Coffee Think Tank podcast is a show about trends, ideas, and innovations in coffee by Fresh Cup, hosted by Garrett Oden. Subscribe to Fresh Cup for more industry insights at freshcup.com.